who's working on this we are gaining the trust of the survivors of their communities. in a post 9/11 world we saw a real drop and chilling effect in victims being willing to come forward. it was another big act of courage as many of you know just naming domestic violence or perhaps making a change in how you're violence is living is a huge courageous move, but to call when at that point they were afraid it was another huge courageous move so i feel both the state and our diverse and wonderful city has had a real challenge and i think we're finally getting back up to where we need to be. we need folks to know they can trust everyone in the room, every system that will come through for them, and i think this is reflected in our report. >> thank you. >> all right. i am really hoping that all the wonderful

things that are being said about domestic violence will be said about elder abuse in the next few years. as a field elder abuse prevention lags behind domestic violence by 20 years and that's a shame because elders are the fastest growing segment of the population and a thousand people turning 65 everyday in the country and san francisco likes to be first in everything and aging is no different. we have the unique population and the highest percentage of senior citizens in an urban area in california and we know many will develop some form of dementia so we have a very vulnerable population, so i want to touch on the numbers in the slide and we see in 2011 we had 6,000 reports and we

have 512 and these cases are 100 i don't want to spend too much time delving into the numbers because they're there to look at with better explanation around them, but i want to highlight a few things that are important to our city. working in the elder abuse center we see -- i really want to take the opportunity to thank inspector and the captain for their amazing work and say we need more bodies to help them. there's my little plug, but it's really true. it's a urgent situation and many elders pass away before they see justices. they're complicated cases and require a high level of expertise to see what happened, to build a case and presented to the da so they can win and they're complicated cases and we bump up against

many obstacles as we seek justice and we are a partner for better results for the citizens here in san francisco. i want to take a brief moment and mention the law enforcement elder abuse act if you don't mind. this act was developed for all of california law enforcement and it is a step up from the pocket cards that we usually hand out at training and penal code 368. it has a lot of information about resources in california. it's at the fingertips of any officer that would like to download it. it's free and we have postcards how to access it as well. i am happy to take any questions or anything. we can move on to the recommendations from the family violence council. >> we're just going to say for the next year the family violence council asked all of the public agencies to give us recommendations that they want

to hold their own department accountable to and we came up with our own. the recommendations are up there and listed them genericically but for me the exciting thing in the last reports when we did the report the first year and emily knows started calling around asking for data there were many, many calls back because we're not used to gathering data like this. i can say -- i think for my co-chairs this third year it was a lot smoother process, and we are able to get data much more quickly and very real data, and so we hope to continue in the next year and we're going to add the sheriff's department in this to gather more data from the sheriff's department and also from the san francisco unified public schools because we have so many programs in the schools working on family violence issues and we have one section in the report so the

wellness centers and we're going to get data for and at the department of public health are looking at gathering data from the public health system so we are hopeful in next year's report we have information from all of the community clinics and san francisco general hospital when people come in and talk about domestic violence and child abuse and elder abuse we are able to capture that data so that is one of the major things we're looking for in the next report. >> the next recommendation is increasing in joint trainings and we're going to add the sheriff's department in this to gather more data from the sheriff's department and also from the san francisco

unified public schools because we have so many programs in the schools working on family violence issues and we have one section in the report so the wellness centers and we're going to get data for and at the department of public health are looking at gathering data from the public health system so we are hopeful in next year's report we have information from all of the community clinics and san francisco general hospital when people come in and talk about domestic violence and child abuse and elder abuse we are able to capture that data so that is one of the major things we're looking for in the next report. >> the next recommendation is increasing in joint trainings one of the recommendations is for 911 dispatchers. they have new codes now and we want to make sure they know how to code, and the new codes around child and elder abuse in particular.

>> i can see we're going to be moving around a lot. a fact sheet that talks about all family violence together in san francisco, so we can paint the picture in a moment's notice so people don't have to big through a full report as interesting as it is. we would like to have a fact sheet done this year that would really paint the picture how serious family violence is and how much progress we have made in san francisco. >> let next recommendation to is have a joint outreach campaign. we had success in our individual fields for these groups and this year we would like to collaborate and have a family violence approach here in the city. >> and we also want to keep supporting -- we believe that the best work that is done is when it's done in the multi-disciplinary capacity. all of us working together.

not one particular agency or group can do it alone so to continue the support what i think the three agencies have really valued to support the work of the domestic violence consortium and the agencies that are membered, to support the work of the elder abuse forensic center and unique and with financial and policy support towards it and i am here actually to thank everyone for the support of the new childrens' advocacy center that we will be opening next year in the bay view with that program and we are thrilled about this come to you next year and what we can do by bringing together the three entities and one of the recommendations is to keep these agencies going. >> san francisco has success through the community and the sheriff's department and having

services available to the victims and survivors of the perpetrators they're working with and the transition of sunni and happy to bring this to you so the victims can receive services in all three of our disciplines and restorative justice through the probation department and we are excited about that and we know we have the talent and leadership for that. >> the last one is from the victim's advocate department and they're very much strong supporters in all the work that we do and there was a press conference in the bay view and talking about this and we utilize this for domestic violence and child abuse but there is a section for children that witness community violence

so they can access the victim's fund and we haven't gotten the word out enough so we are training our advocates that exist in the seven agencies in the city and experts of domestic violence and community violence from zero to five so we hope to utilize that fund. children are eligible up to $5,000 of therapy and counseling and we hope to tell you next year how many children access that fund. >> thank you for your time. we are really honored to be here and present to you to both commissions tonight. >> thank you very much. i would like to commend the department and especially stacey young this year to pull together the report. it's not easy coordinating all of the statistics and particularly with different computer systems and different department are on fiscal years versus calendar years and recognizing cases don't move easily through a

year to year basis and keep track of that so thank you to all of the agencies involved. >> we could not have done this without the department and commission on the status of women. there are staff and they support this work everyday. >> don't go anywhere. the commissioner has a question for you. >> i just wanted -- my take away from that really comprehensive presentation was also part of why we're here together today it's just a recination that we don't operate in silos, that we're in the same conversation as criminal justice family as addressing violence in the community and part of the reason we're talking. it's so powerful to see all of you and the benefit for the elder abuse folks and see some of the gains kathy baxter has made in 30 years and getting you to a place that you're opening the advocacy center and i want to thank you

for your leadership and success. you're really showing us a powerful model. >> i just want to under score the comments by ms. gwen hoping that in the next few years we see the same progress of elder abuse as domestic violence. i can tell you from my work in estate planning and probate and conservatorships often it's the people closest to the elder who fail to recognize the proper boundaries as the elder ages, and that the elder's assets are for their support and care and i really think they're a strenuous outreach campaign and public education campaign in that regard is in order, and the other aspect of this that is also delicate is that the family members who are closest and who often are the ones that take advantage are the ones there present supporting so it's a

very difficult balance to strike, and maintain the support with the respect. >> commissioner. >> i would just like to echo how fortunate we are to have the women work with the commission for years but since we are giving shout outs i would like to shout out to the police department and the chief and i think it was a year ago when you created this unit and housed them on the premier floor on the hall of justice and we fought for that and without that these people wouldn't be working in unity today and i want to thank the police department and the police commission for that opportunity. >> please call the next portion of line item three please. commissioner chan. okay. >> thank you for that presentation. i appreciate it. and the approach to all of

these and looking at in a comprehensive way and the 55 page family violence council 2011 report is really impressiv3

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>> she will present the district attorney's office on the review of san francisco rates for domestic violence. >> we flipped a coin. have you to be here this evening in front of of these commissions to talk a little bit about our work in the district attorney's office as it relates to domestic violence. as many of you know we have a

vertical domestic violence unit as it relates to misdemeanor and felony prosecution. domestic violence notoriously difficult to prosecute requires building meaningful, deep relationship with the victim so they will have the confidence in us to project them to the court proceedings and try to rebuild her family. it is a crucial element of what we do we are committed . to maintaining that. we have six attorneys to handle all misdemeanor and felony domestic violence cases. santa clara also has vertical misdemeanor and felony prosecution approach. in the unit that we have, it handles about 270 cases a

month. that is about a 100% increase in the last two years. we have seen a dramatic increase in the number of cases that we are handling as an office without increasing our staff. we are also seeing an increase in the number of cases not resolving through plea bargain, that number is 92%. we are seeing dramatic increase in our work in the area of domestic violence, that 92% is just in the last year, calendar year 2011-12. santa clara as i mentioned that has a vertical misdemeanor and felony unit has hermetically more staff, both support staff and attorneys. they have over 306 two percent more support staff and 60

percent more attorneys. we have not had dedicated victim advocates, parlegals, support staff. the attorneys carry the burden of building the relationship with the woman. they are seeing an increase in caseload and is becoming exceptionally difficult to maintain that meaningful relationship. we have seen a change in the public offenders approach to those cases moving away from a vertical dv unit spreading those cases to all attorneys. they have gone from having two misdemeanor public defenders

to 12, further exacerbating the workload challenges that we are seeing now particularly in the misdemeanor domestic violence prosecution. as you may or may not know, the public defender's office handles about half of the cases that comes through the criminal justice system. the remainder is handled by conflict attorneys or private attorneys retained by the defendant. we handle 100 percent of everything prosecuted. in addition to handling 100 percent of the cases we have responsibility for areas outside of the public defender's purview such as white-collar prosecution, victim assistance, criminal investigation. those are not obligations

shared by defense counsel. we continue to push hard; we are doing good work but we are under resourced. a the district attorney has raised is concerned with the mayor and supervisor chu, and prepared a budget supplemental that we hope will alleviate some of the challenges that we are facing in the near term. i will be happy to answer any questions that you have. >> i have a question. i read today that -- applied for grant money for investigators and prosecutors in the domestic violence arena. have you heard anything about that? >> we are always applying for grants. we just received one in conjunction with the departmental staff to help english deficient victims. when the case is coming to the police department the police

evaluate the danger of possible death for the victim and allows for a portion of attorney positions and advocate but not investigator. >> when the victims are initially on board with the prosecution after the arrest, there is a substantial majority of the time when the picture changes his or her mind, can you tell us about the difficulties that prosecutors deal with in that situation and what support they are getting from witness victim advocates and those prosecutions? >> this is really a very volatile experience. generally somebody's robbed or suffered some other type of crime; the actors often committed by a stranger. in domestic violence by its nature is committed by a person that they deeply loved. we are asked to navigate to personal relationships. one of the huge challenges we

face are delays in bringing cases to trial. we have three attorneys. we have to finish one trial before we can begin the next. we have extended exposure to their batterer and maybe change your mind about wanting to proceed. with changes in the law it is extremely difficult for us to continue with the prosecution without evicting that is interested in proceeding. in the past with call police officer and the relay what information they took at the scene that is no longer acceptable as evidence. without the vacant you often don't have the ability to put together the evidence to persuade a jury. it is critical for us to keep the victim engaged in the process, one, for his or her safety but ultimately to secure an outcome that will protect them in the long-term. to do that our office, and jean should be commended for this,

requires that we contact every single victim personally and we do that the attorney. jean goes to the file, gets a round of calls, she assigns them to the attorney, they give around calls, and we try to maintain the level of communication with the victim and bring them in to the victim advocates who will be to the victim either at the hall of justice or other places, often in people's homes or in another safe place that they feel is appropriate. we really try to be accessible and available to the victims in a way that is most comfortable to them. however in the process, as we have particularly seen in the last less than six months the change in the public defenders assignment of the cases, our caseload makes it almost impossible to keep that level of touch with the victims and we are seeing a dramatic

increase in the number of victims that are uninterested in proceeding when we arrive at the point of trial. -- for us, we know from having done this work with lowercase lows that when we have the opportunity to speak to generally the woman but the victim in the case and build that relationship through an advocate, an investigator or an attorney we see much higher interest in prosecution, and a much high conviction rate as a result of that. >> commissioner shorter. >> it in clarify for those watching from home who jean is? not everyone knows. so you can be on tv too. >> good evening my name is jean roland,managing attorney for stalking, domestic

violence and physical elderly abuse. >> i do have a question for you both. just to clarify, while you are working under staffed in terms of your ability to provide all services, as we would like to victims, just to clarify, it seems the weight in which victims become engaged with the advocacy organizations of those programs providing services including shelter and beyond, that first link really comes through the district attorney's office. unless the victims themselves call those agencies. but certainly you are all helping to assist if persons want that type of support.

>> i think that i would have to attribute that to a joint effort by the scu unit as well as the district attorney's office. the first point of real contact that dv victims have are the inspectors and svu. once inspectors make the initial contact that is where the trust begins. once that trust is established it is turned over to our office where our attorneys try to maintain that trust. honestly, with a number of attorneys that we have it is very difficult to maintain that. as we know it is not just the perpetrators who continue to have power and control over the victims but there are families and relatives out there for the defendants who also apply a lot of pressure on the victims. i think that one of the most crucial points in prosecuting dv cases is when the victim begins to turn away

from us, the prosecution. i honestly believe t we need more resources because at that point in time it is not a matter of us letting these cases go. i think we have defined other means to be able to pursue these cases even when victims don't always cooperate or even when they don't come in to testify i have to believe that it is not always because they are not telling the truth. i think a lot of it has to do with recanting, minimizing, and quite honestly they are very dependent on their abusers. there are a lot of different situations. it is incumbent upon us to find out what those reasons are before we let these cases go. so we need more resources in order to be able to find other types of evidence that might be out there in order for us to continue to prosecute these

types of crimes. >> thank you. >> one other thing on victim advocates, may not be obvious to everyone what they do. they said done with the victim and discuss with him or her what will happen. they will help them get mental health counseling, counseling for the children, help with relocation is required, a whole area of services that we offer through our victim services unit. they don't require that its case be charged. even if an individual the size it is not safe to move forward we can still offer services that units especially in domestic violence at a very high rate. >> the victim's unit that you described, is that house and district attorney's office? >> yes.